SHE'S YOURS, SHE'S MINE
by PHOENIX FURY
Summary: Sequel to ‘YOU’VE LOST HER’ Before Angel walks away he visits Buffy's new lover.
1. SHE'S YOURS

**SHE'S YOURS.**

_**BY PHOENIX FURY**_

**DISCLAIMER:** I SAY THIS ONLY ONCE SO LISTEN UP! I do not own any of the characters, they belong TPTB. I'm merely borrowing them.  
**SUMMERY:** Sequel to, "You've Lost Her."

X-Over - BtVS/HIGHLANDER

METHOS/BUFFY

* * *

Angel knew if Buffy found out he was doing this she would stake him, but he couldn't leave till he had spoken with her boyfriend, with Adam.

He waited till she'd left for patrol then he knocked on the door.

Adam opened the door.

He was tall and slender with short ruffled black hair. If he hadn't known Adam was Immortal all he had to do was look in his eyes. Old eyes. The eyes of someone seen and done too much, and lived things beyond your imagination. Buffy held that same look in her eyes at times.

"I'm -"

"Angel, come in." He said and opened the door. "Buffy's not here at the moment."

"I know." He mentally slapped himself he hadn't meant to admit he'd come when he knew she wasn't there. "How did you know who I was?" Angel asked as he stepped into the hallway.

"Follow me and I'll show you." Adam let the way to the back of the house. Through the lounge, into the kitchen and dinning room where there was double doors into a library/study and out into the conservatory that overlooked a large garden.

There was a large desk but on top of a paint splattered sheet in the middle of the room was an easel with a large painted canvas.

Angel looked at the painting. The face, the body it would have been like looking in the mirror if he had a reflection. But long white majestic wings came out from his back and curved up into the sky.

"Buffy painted this?" Angel asked in awe, the detail was ... stunning.

"Hmm." Adam grinned proudly. "It's one her art assignments, had to be based around a myth or legend or religion. She said 'I'm gonna paint an Angel' and well your name is Angel and she said when she first met you she thought of you as her guardian angel, always turning up with warning of trouble and helping her. So voila." He waved a hand at the canvas.

It wasn't painted like most pictures of angels he'd seen where they looked gentle and kind with halos of gold around their heads. A dark night background with a full moon at the top above him, highlighting his features, he looked more like an avenging angel, a warrior. All he wore was his leather pants that he remembered her once telling him made him look anything but angelic.

"She only finished it a few days ago. She said maybe it would help you see that you're more then the demon inside you as well as remind you how you looked. She's gonna send it to you at the end of the school year when all her work's been marked."

"I never knew she could paint," Angel said softly his eyes still on the painting.

"When she became the Slayer she left the girl of who she was behind. Skating, dancing, horse riding, art." Adam said and then pointed to all her art stuff. "The conservatory's got the best light so she does all her art stuff in here. Mostly she paints and sketches, watercolours is her favourite medium, pastels she's not a big fan of and she doesn't use charcoal at all."

Angel could guess why. Angelus had left her several charcoal drawings to taunt her.

Adam didn't seem jealous that his girlfriend had painted her ex-boyfriend.

"Let's go back into the kitchen so I can carry on making dinner. Would you like anything, coffee, tea, hot chocolate?"

"I'm fine."

Adam went to the kitchen Angel took one last look at the painting before following.

The kitchen was modern and painted in shades of creamy and bright yellow and terracotta, the dining room was connected to it and painted in cream and beige. The library/study had two large desks facing each other, a computer on each and was filled from floor to ceiling with books.

He'd noticed on his way through the house that the lounge was painted in rich red with cream, had two large leather sofas with large cushions and fleece throws a large rug on the floor in front of the fire with a state of the art entertainment system.

The house was a mix of modern and antiques yet held a warm comfortable feeling. There was nothing that was girly or too masculine. The colours were creams with lots of rich and warm colours.

One the walls were painting he thought might have been done by her and photographs of her new life. She looked happier and more relaxed then he had ever seen her.

"I'm just making a salad, I have the pizza already in the oven." Adam said as he got some lettuce, peppers and cucumber out the fridge as Angel stood on the other side of the counter.

"Ham and pineapple?" Angel said remembering that was her favourite.

Adam nodded. "Yeah. I'm hoping if I make a salad she won't eat all of the pizza."

"I doubt it. She was always starving after patrol."

"I can hope," He smiled seeming at ease with having his lovers ex in his home as he washed and cut up the lettuce.

Angel leaned forward starring down at the countertop. Now that he was here he had no idea what to say to the man who was with the woman he loved.

"She told me you two talked yesterday."

Angel looked up surprised that he wanted to talk about it. There didn't seem to be any jealousy or resentment at his presence. He knew he wouldn't feel like that if it had been the other way round. "Yeah."

"She said it helped her, did it help you?"

Angel shrugged. "Not really."

"You still love her."

Though he stated rather then asked Angel answered anyway. "Yeah. I don't think I'll ever stop." He said since it was the truth.

"I'm an Immortal I've had 68 wives, I don't think you ever stop loving someone it just gets replaced by love for someone else or faded by time."

Angel gaped at him. "68!"

He shrugged. "I've lived a very long time."

"How long?"

"Much much longer then you."

"But 68."

"You forget in old times you get wiped out very quickly by war and famine. I watched each wife die either by being killed, sickness or age."

"Did you love every one of them?"

"I loved them all to varying degrees but I wasn't in love with them. I never really understood the difference and back then it hardly mattered. And you know as well as I do back then people married for a whole range of reasons; money, social standing yada yada. Anyway when you're an Immortal commitment to a mortal isn't exactly long, maybe 50 years at the most. To mortals time passes so quickly one moment they're there and the next they're not." He said his expression telling him that he had lived for a very, very, very long time.

Angel wondered and worried if that was how he saw Buffy. "Do you love her?" Angel asked.

Adam stopped making the salad and looked at him seriously.

They both knew who her was.

Adam looked him square in the eye. "Yes I do. I loved her the moment I looked into her eyes. I felt like I'd been struck by lightening. I saw her heart in her eyes; all the pain, betrayal, the struggle to be strong, her strength, the achingly tired soul, the warrior and the girl in her. I saw her."

Angel looked at him and saw the truth. This was her other soulmate. He wondered if either realized that. He though it was funny that the two men she fell in love with, her two soulmates, fell in love with her at first sight and knew it.

"For an Immortal the years are long and mortals fade so quickly. You have to watch as the world, as people you care about age and die and it hurts every time. Eventually you avoid getting close to anyone, you keep yourself at a distance. Being an Immortal you have to keep moving regularly to protect yourself so you try not to get attached to places or people. I've lived like that for centuries being alone hurts a lot less then watching people die but you don't live you simply exist." Adam said though his voice and face was expressionless Angel swore he could see the many years that Adam had lived in his eyes.

"A few years ago I loved a woman called Alexis. I met her after she had been given a few months to live. In her last months I took her around the world I saw the world anew through her eyes and then I watched her die. I loved her very much." He smiled sadly as he remembered his past love.

"Alexis made me stop simply existing and actually live again; she opened up my heart so that I would see Buffy, so that I wouldn't let her slip through my fingers. Buffy brightens up my dark world. She makes me laugh when she rambles. She scares me every night she walks out that door to patrol and I become a housewife so I don't go racing after her to try and protect her. I do that occasionally about once a month when I get the bright idea of 'I'll watch from a distance she'll never know' and those are the nights I sleep on the couch usually after she's given me a black eye or broken my nose." He chuckled.

"She does have a mean right hook." Angel agreed having been on the end of it a few times.

"Yeah luckily it goes away quickly, though if it didn't I properly wouldn't get the bright idea as often. My head knows she's Immortal and harder to kill but my heart just says harder yeah, but not impossible. I know she's been doing this for years, that she's the longest living Slayer, but I also now how many close calls she's had weather she's told me them or not. I can see it, feel it. And it doesn't get any easier."

Angel well remembered that part of being the Slayer's boyfriend. "No, it doesn't. But you just have to remember how stubborn she is, she always gets back up and she has a killer right hook if you forget."

Adam nodded. "Immortal's drift through life trying to keep their heads. Some are headhunters out for as many heads as they can because of the Game. Others only face those who come after them. Others want nothing to do with the Game. We're a selfish lot, we think about only number one, you don't get involved, usually." He finished at a mutter. "It makes things easier, less complicated."

_And hurt less,_ Angel though silently. "Unless you have a Slayer in your life?"

Adam nodded, "And a boy scout."

Angel blinked at him not understanding who he was talking about.

"Another Immortal, only 400 years, still a baby, very innocent and naive. Everything's black and white to him, he never sees the shades of grey. It gets him into trouble." He said making a face but there was an undertone of friendship there.

"Yes but those are usually the ones who help us cynical and pessimistic remember what it is to be alive."

Adam chuckled. "To be young and stupid again."

Angel looked at the man he saw before him. He had admitted he was cynical and pessimistic. A lone wolf, holding himself at a distance from the world. But he could also see someone he could respect though he had no idea how he had lived his life. He could not judge another for their past considering his own. He was slowly learning it was what you chose to do now that mattered.

Adam looked at him. "Why are you here Angel?"

"I needed to see she was ok."

"You saw that yesterday, you already knew that when you found her."

"I let her slip through my fingers. I hurt her more then once. I lost her… to you."

"And yet if I messed up you could sweep in and make her yours again." Adam said.

Angel shook his head. "No, I don't think I could. I had three chances and each time I walked away from her. She would never trust me with her heart again. I don't want her to be alone. I want her to be happy, loved."

"She is something to be treasured. Don't make my mistake Adam. Don't break her heart. Don't walk away from her like everyone else in her life has. I know loving the Slayer is scary but I left to protect her and she died anyway. And believe me the moment you realize you will never see her face again, hear her laughter, even simply feel her presence in the world even if it's far away beyond your sight, you will wish you were dead. You will wish your soul was in hell because that will seem like heaven compared to a world without her." Angel said unlocking the grief he had felt when he had gone through that moment. He wanted to warn Adam not away but of making his mistakes. Despite the fact it tore him apart but if his warning made Adam realize how lucky he was it was worth it to keep Buffy happy.

"Yet you survived." Adam said softly seeming to understand he was speaking from experience. He'd said he had watched his wives died, maybe he had more experience then Angel. But no he hadn't been in love with them, he'd admitted that. And they weren't his soulmate.

"I existed. I carried on fighting. But no, I didn't survive and I didn't learn from it. She came back and despite her pain, I was glad. So grateful she was alive. I felt her love was still there, that she needed me, I knew where she'd been and I still let her go. I still walked away from her. I lost her."

"If you knew that why did you walk away?" Adam asked.

Angel sighed. Walking away from her had been the biggest mistakes of his life and always would be. And it had nearly killed him to do it.

"It would have been so easy to take her to LA, to keep her. But I love her too much to be with her and not have her. I'm strong but I'm not that strong. She deserves to be held in the night, to have someone make love to her over and over again without fear of a demon. No holding back. She deserves the best and I can't give that to her. I love her too much to deny her what she deserves just because I want her by my side. I love her enough to let her be with someone who can give her that."

Then Angel looked at him and asked. "Can you give her that? Can you give her what she deserves? To love her the way she deserves. Love her with every breath you take in every second."

Angel saw the truth in his eyes even before he answered.

"Yes."

Angel clenched his hands together.

Adam was the one to give her what she deserved. To love her the way she deserved. She would never be alone again, he would walk by her side. He would hold her, make love to her.

He had lost her to a man who could make her happy. It didn't lessen the pain but it made it a little easier to bare to know she would be loved.

There was one last thing to say.

"Take care of her." Angel said softly before he walked out of their home.

He suddenly felt her presence as the door shut behind him. She was coming closer. He could feel it.

He quickly went across the street and hid in the shadows. He timed that just right because he knew if she had found them talking about her she would have blown a fuse.

Adam opened the door as she came up the street. Buffy's smile on her face grew into a full fledge happy grin. Her pace quickened as she made her way to the front door.

Adam picked her up off her feet and kissed her. She wound her arms around his neck kissing him back. Adam then buried his face in her hair, simply holding her close.

Angel knew that feeling. He used to hug her like that after she had a close call. When he had to say goodnight but didn't want to let her go. When he just wanted to hold her to reassure himself she was real, that she was his.

Angel stood in the shadows and watched them as they entered their home. He watched through the still open door as Adam helped her off with her coat. She trotted up the stairs to change into her Pjs or sweats Angel suspected.

Adam watched her go before he stood on the doorstep and looked down both sides of the street. He turned his head back to look up the stairs, Angel could hear Buffy's voice asking about food, before Adam went back inside and shut the door.

Tears of blood slipped down Angel's cheeks just like he let her slip through his fingers.

_Love her Adam._

_She's yours now, take care of her._

THE END.

* * *

_I think I'm gonna do another part from Methos/Adam side of things._

_Cause he's just yum._

**PHOENIX FURY**


	2. SHE'S MINE

**SHE'S MINE.**

_**BY PHOENIX FURY**_

**DISCLAIMER:** I SAY THIS ONLY ONCE SO LISTEN UP! I do not own any of the characters, they belong TPTB. I'm merely borrowing them.  
**SUMMERY:** Methos gets a late night visit from Buffy's former lover.

* * *

Buffy had left early for patrol since she didn't have a shift at Joe's that night. So Adam was alone in the house with not much to do. He could go to Joes and have a drink but he usually only did that when she was on shift. He could go round to Duncan's but …

Adam heard a knock at the door and went to answer.

He blinked in surprise at the man standing on his doorstep. He was maybe an inch shorter then he was but boarder. His dark hair was spiked up and his dark clothes made his skin seem even paler.

Adam knew instantly who it was, he looked exactly like Buffy's art project.

But the eyes alone told him who this was.

These were the eyes of someone who had seen, done and lived things beyond your imagination. The eyes told of a tortured soul. Of strength. Of love.

"I'm -"

"Angel, come in." Adam said and opened the door. "Buffy's not here at the moment."

"I know. How did you know who I was?" Angel asked as he stepped into the hallway.

Since Adam had thought about the painting when he had seen the Vampire it seemed only fair to show him. The whole point of the painting was for him anyway. "Follow me and I'll show you." Adam let the way to the back of the house.

The conservatory was newly built and overlooked the large garden, Buffy liked open airy spaces and when it was sunny she would often open the double doors and work outside.

It had laminated floor then most of it was covered with a paint splattered sheet. To one side was a large desk and shelves of art supplies and paper. But in the middle of the room was an easel with a painted canvas.

Angel looked at the painting. His eyes were wide and stunned.

"Buffy painted this?" Angel asked in awe he reached out a hand as if to touch it but pulled back last minute. He didn't even seem aware of the movement.

"Hmm." Adam grinned proudly. "It's one her art assignments, had to be based around a myth or legend or religion. She said 'I'm gonna paint an Angel' and well your name is Angel and she said when she first met you she thought of you as her guardian angel, always turning up with warning of trouble and helping her. So voila." He waved a hand at the canvas.

"She only finished it a few days ago. She said maybe it would help you see that you're more then the demon inside you as well as remind you how you looked. She's gonna send it to you at the end of the school year when all her work's been marked."

"I never knew she could paint." The Vampire said softly.

"When she became the Slayer she left the girl of who she was behind. Skating, dancing, horse riding, art." Adam said and then pointed to all her art stuff. "The conservatory's got the best light so she does all her art stuff in here. Mostly she paints and sketches, watercolours are her favourite medium, pastels she's not a big fan of and she doesn't use charcoal at all."

He saw Angel tense. Maybe it would have been better to have not said the last part. Buffy had told him why she hated and wouldn't use charcoal.

Adam felt better now about showing the Vampire the painting when he said that though. He had to admit he hadn't exactly been comfortable about Buffy painting Angel but seeing Angel looking at himself his image that he hadn't seen in a very long time and knowing Adam knew something that Angel hadn't about Buffy... well call him petty.

Buffy had talked to him about Angel being there, what they had talked about and reassured him that it didn't change anything between them. If anything it seemed by laying the demons of her past relationship to rest it helped free her or maybe relax more in theirs. He knew a lot of her doubts and fears came from her first relationship so that made sense to him. It would have taken time and patience anyway for her to put those demons to rest and heal old wounds but maybe the talk of Angel needed to happen. 'To move forward let go of the past' She'd said that once to him. Maybe by finally letting go of all the pain, healing from it, helped her let go of the past and all that came with it.

Angel had said he knew Buffy wasn't here so he had to have to come to see him. But why? Adam wondered.

"Let's go back into the kitchen so I can carry on making dinner. Would you like anything, coffee, tea, hot chocolate?"

"I'm fine."

Adam went to the kitchen Angel soon followed him.

He saw Angel glancing at the other paintings on the wall and their photographs as he came into the kitchen.

Maybe this wasn't about her letting go at all? Maybe this was about Angel?

"I'm just making a salad, I have the pizza already in the oven." Adam said as he got some lettuce, peppers and cucumber out the fridge as Angel stood on the other side of the counter.

"Ham and pineapple?" Angel said smiling slightly.

Adam nodded. "Yeah. I'm hoping if I make a salad she won't eat all of the pizza."

"I doubt it. She was always starving after patrol."

Adam stomped on the jealously that rose at Angel's knowledge of Buffy's habits. It was understandable. Angel knew her Slayer life and habits properly better then he did since for three years he had been beside her as she had become the Slayer, it made sense. Adam would know her that well and better one day, he told himself. "I can hope," He smiled and washed and cut up the lettuce.

Angel leaned forward starring down at the countertop. He looked a little lost for words.

Adam decided to get the ball rolling. "She told me you two talked yesterday."

Angel looked up surprised that he wanted to talk about it, as was he actually. Adam actually felt curious about the Vampire. He knew a lot from Buffy but to see and hear for himself instead of Buffy's point of view of a man she had loved, her other soulmate… well he was curious.

"Yeah." Angel said almost cautiously.

"She said it helped her, did it help you?"

Angel shrugged. "Not really."

"You still love her."

It wasn't a question. It was as plain as day that the Vampire was still deeply in love with the Slayer. He didn't see how anyone could _not_ love Buffy.

"Yeah. I don't think I'll ever stop."

Adam nodded. He wasn't threatened to know that the Vampire still loved her. He understood he would always have a part of her, a part of her past he would never know just like Alexia and his wives had parts of him.

"I'm an Immortal I've had 68 wives, I don't think you ever stop loving someone, it just gets replaced by love for someone else or faded by time."

Angel gaped at him. "68!"

Adam shrugged. "I've lived a very long time."

"How long?"

"Much much longer then you." He said smirking a little.

"But 68."

Adam shrugged. "You forget in old times you get wiped out very quickly by war and famine. I watched each wife die either by being killed, sickness or age."

"Did you love every one of them?"

"I loved them all to varying degrees but I wasn't in love with them. I never really understood the difference and back then it hardly mattered. And you know as well as I do back then people married for a whole range of reasons; money, social standing yada yada. Anyway when you're an Immortal commitment to a mortal isn't exactly long, maybe 50 years at the most. To mortals time passes so quickly, one moment they're there and the next they're not." He said thinking of Alexis and some of his favourite wives.

Adam could see something – an emotion shift in Angel's eyes. "Do you love her?" Angel asked.

Adam stopped making the salad and looked at him seriously.

They both knew who her was.

Adam looked him square in the eye. "Yes I do. I loved her the moment I looked into her eyes. I felt like I'd been struck by lightening. I saw her heart in her eyes; all the pain, betrayal, the struggle to be strong, her strength, the achingly tired soul, the warrior and the girl in her. I saw her."

Adam began to have an idea of why Angel had come. Adam looked in his eyes and saw a man he respected. Angel hadn't come to tell him to stay from Buffy or to threaten him but to make sure she would be happy.

Adam could see Angel understood and believed what he was saying. Maybe he had fallen in love with Buffy on sight? Angel was her soulmate too, it was there in his eyes. Adam had never liked that he had to share but he realized that this Vampire was a worthy - partner maybe - at protecting her soul. At loving her. But she was his and he wasn't giving her up.

He decided to reassure Angel a bit realizing that the shift of emotion he had seen in Angel had been worry about his love for Buffy. About his commitment to her.

"For an Immortal the years are long and mortals fade so quickly. You have to watch as the world, as people you care about age and die and it hurts every time. Eventually you avoid getting close to anyone, you keep yourself at a distance. Being an Immortal you have to keep moving regularly to protect yourself so you try not to get attached to places or people. I've lived like that for centuries being alone hurts a lot less then watching people die but you don't live you simply exist." Adam said though his voice and face was expressionless Angel swore he could see the many years that Adam had lived in his eyes.

"A few years ago I loved a woman called Alexis. I met her after she had been given a few months to live. In her last months I took her around the world I saw the world anew through her eyes and then I watched her die. I loved her very much." He smiled sadly as he remembered his past love.

"Alexis made me stop simply existing and actually live again; she opened up my heart so that I would see Buffy, so that I wouldn't let her slip through my fingers. Buffy brightens up my dark world. She makes me laugh when she rambles. She scares me every night she walks out that door to patrol and I become a housewife so I don't go racing after her to try and protect her. I do that occasionally about once a month when I get the bright idea of 'I'll watch from a distance she'll never know' and those are the nights I sleep on the couch usually after she's given me a black eye or broken my nose." He chuckled remembering the last time that had happened. God that had hurt.

"She does have a mean right hook." Angel smirked.

"Yeah luckily it goes away quickly, though if it didn't I properly wouldn't get the bright idea as often. My head knows she's Immortal and harder to kill but my heart just says harder yeah, but not impossible. I know she's been doing this for years, that she's the longest living Slayer, but I also now how many close calls she's had weather she's told me them or not. I can see it, feel it. And it doesn't get any easier." He said quietly. This was someone who could understand what it was like to love a Slayer.

Angel looked at him in understanding. "No it doesn't. But you just have to remember how stubborn she is, she always gets back up and she has a killer right hook if you forget."

Adam nodded. "Immortal's drift through life trying to keep their heads. Some are headhunters out for as many heads as they can because of the Game. Others only face those who come after them. Others want nothing to do with the Game. We're a selfish lot, we think about only number one, you don't get involved, usually." He finished at a mutter. "It makes things easier, less complicated." He had been a quiet, almost hermit and self-absorbed life only looking out for number one for centuries. It didn't seem he would ever be that person again with Duncan, Joe and Buffy in his life. But to be honest he didn't miss it or that person.

"Unless you have a Slayer in your life?" Angel guessed.

He smiled and nodded. "And a boy scout." He said thinking of Duncan.

Angel blinked at him, not understanding who he was talking about.

"Another Immortal, only 400 years, still a baby, very innocent and naive. Everything's black and white to him, he never sees the shades of grey. It gets him into trouble." Adam explained.

"Yes but those are usually the ones who help us cynical and pessimistics remember what it is to be alive."

Adam chuckled. "To be young and stupid again."

Adam looked at him and finally asked, "Why are you here Angel?"

"I needed to see she was ok."

"You saw that yesterday, you already knew that when you found her." Adam pointed out. He knew there something else, something more Angel wanted to say or do. Something.

"I let her slip through my fingers. I hurt her more then once. I lost her… to you."

"And yet if I messed up you could sweep in and make her yours again." Adam said. Though he wasn't going to mess up or be stupid and lose Buffy like Angel had.

Angel shook his head. "No, I don't think I could. I had three chances and each time I walked away from her. She would never trust me with her heart again. I don't want her to be alone. I want her to be happy, loved."

"She is something to be treasured. Don't make my mistake Adam. Don't break her heart. Don't walk away from her like everyone else in her life has. I know loving the Slayer is scary but I left to protect her and she died anyway. And believe me the moment you realize you will never see her face again, hear her laughter, even simply feel her presence in the world even if it's far away beyond your sight you will wish you were dead. You will wish your soul was in hell because that will seem like heaven compared to a world without her." Angel said each word filled with emotion. It was like he was almost … yes that was what he was doing - warning him. But wouldn't he want Adam to mess up so he could try and get her back?

"Yet you survived." Adam said softly. He had his own experiences with losing ones he loved but he knew Buffy would be different. Angel was speaking from experience and he sensed this was a part of why he was here. What he was trying to tell Adam, to make him understand?

"I existed. I carried on fighting. But no, I didn't survive and I didn't learn from it. She came back and despite her pain I was glad. So grateful she was alive. I felt her love was still there, that she needed me, I knew where she'd been and I still let her go. I still walked away from her. I lost her."

"If you knew that why did you walk away?" Adam asked, he'd always wondered how Angel had done it. How he, if he loved her as much as she had loved him, walked away from her?

Angel sighed. "It would have been so easy to take her to LA, to keep her. But I love her too much to be with her and not have her. I'm strong but I'm not that strong. She deserves to be held in the night, to have someone make love to her over and over again without fear of a demon. No holding back. She deserves the best and I can't give that to her. I love her too much to deny her what she deserves just because I want her by my side. I love her enough to let her be with someone who can give her that." Then Angel looked at him, his gaze seemed to bore into him.

"Can you give her that? Can you give her what she deserves? To love her the way she deserves. Love her with every breath you take in every second." Angel asked him.

He didn't have to think he already knew the answer. "Yes."

Adam looked at the Vampire - no man - who loved someone so much he let his soulmate, someone who he loved more then his own soul be with someone else.

Adam didn't think he was that strong. He was the selfish sort. He was also greedy. He couldn't give Buffy up.

"Take care of her." Angel said softly before he turned and walked out of their home.

Adam didn't know what to say as he watched the Vampire leave. And then he went to the front door opening it intending… oh he didn't know what he intended. To say thank you or he would take care of her. Reassurance maybe. Something.

But as he opened the door he felt her presence and the Immortal buzz and there was no Angel in sight.

Buffy was walking up the street. He felt his world brighten as her smile grew into a happy grin as she saw him. Her pace quickened as she made her way to the front door, to him.

Adam picked her up off her feet and kissed her. She wound her arms around his neck kissing him back. Adam then buried his face in her hair, simply holding her close.

He just wanted to hold her, needed to feel that she was real, that she was there. That she was his.

"I love you," He whispered against her hair, breathing in her scent, memorizing it though by now it was engrained into his memory. Fruit from her shampoo and her own scent, Vanilla.

"I love you too." Then she pulled away. "Am I allowed in or are we going to stand on the doorstep all night?" Adam put her down and helped her off with her coat.

"Back in a sec," she said pulled off her shoes and jogging up the stairs to get changed no doubt into her sweats.

Adam watched her go before he stepped out into the night. He looked down both sides of the street. He wondered if Angel had used his Vampire speed to disappear or if he had watched her return home?

He turned his head back when he heard Buffy's voice asking about food. Adam smiled and stepped back inside and shut the door.

She was his now and he would not give her up. He would not lose her.

He silently promised.

_I'll love her till the end of time and beyond. _

_She's mine, I'll take care of her._

THE END.

* * *

_Hope you like it,_

**PHOENIX FURY**


End file.
